Employment  Mr. Speaker, I really wanted to give a good answer in response to my colleague's excellent question; I can imagine the member is anxious to hear all about just how serious our government is about wanting to invest in an economy that will grow the middle class. It will also be an economy for the future, which will put us on a sustainable and inclusive path, will leave no one behind, and will generate hope and enthusiasm among our young people, who want to build a better country.

Employment  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity afforded by our colleague to remind the House that Canadians elected a government that has chosen to invest in the middle class and in the future of our economy to create jobs now and in the future, as part of an inclusive, sustainable economic development approach that benefits the middle class and leaves no one behind.

Housing  Mr. Speaker, I thank our colleague for giving me an opportunity to talk about how important the work of the partners she mentioned is in developing a national housing strategy and for a renewed federal commitment to helping all of our families with their housing needs. In the March 2016 budget, we announced major investments to meet short-term needs.

Canada Pension Plan  Mr. Speaker I would like to congratulate my colleague for making it very clear that we are not only concerned about the present circumstances of our middle-class families, but we are looking to the future to make sure that families and our citizens and our workers, when they retire, have the income security that they not only deserve but also want.

Canada Pension Plan  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate and welcome this opportunity to say that this enhanced CPP is also going to lead to an enhanced disability and survivors benefit. We know how difficult some of our senior women find it when they become widows, when they find themselves both in economic and social insecurity.

Canada Pension Plan  Mr. Speaker, I would like to share my time with my colleague from Mississauga East—Cooksville. I am delighted to be here for this very important, and I would call it historic, debate. The changes our government is proposing to enhance the Canada pension plan are important to every working Canadian and would have a lasting impact for generations to come.

Social Development  Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate my colleague from Kingston and the Islands on his excellent French and thank him for the great work that he is doing for his riding and to make maternity benefits more flexible and easily accessible. Our government promised to support parents and family caregivers by providing them with more flexible and inclusive benefits.

Housing  Mr. Speaker, I sincerely thank my colleague for giving me this opportunity to say that this morning, just a few hours ago, I had a very productive meeting with the most important players and partners in the social community sector on the matter of housing. We had a very fruitful discussion, on the heels of countless discussions I had the privilege of taking part in over the past few months.

Taxation  Mr. Speaker, I believe we all witnessed the passion and compassion of a member of this assembly yesterday. We are all concerned about the difficulties some families face. We care too. What we tried to say in the House yesterday is that the government is working very hard to strengthen the middle class and reduce poverty for all Canadian families.

Canada Pension Plan  moved for leave to introduce Bill C-26, An Act to amend the Canada Pension Plan, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Act and the Income Tax Act. (Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

Employment Insurance  Mr. Speaker, I am grateful to the member for giving me the opportunity to say how concerned all members of the House are by the difficult circumstances some of our families find themselves in. I will have an important announcement to make on that matter soon. I just want to repeat that in the campaign, our government promised that it would be looking into EI special benefits, including maternity, parental, and compassionate care benefits.

Taxation  Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for her passion, which enables me to give specific details on the Canada child benefit. This is the most significant social policy innovation in a generation. It is going to take the families of 500,000 people in Canada, 300,000 of them children, out of poverty.

Taxation  Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to take this opportunity to repeat some of our commitments, as the hon. member kindly made an allusion to seniors' issues. We have signalled in the past few months how important seniors' issues are to our government. For instance, we have increased the guaranteed income supplement by up to $950 dollars per year, which is going to take 13,000 seniors out of poverty.

Employment  Mr. Speaker, we are very concerned with jobs across Canada and with the particular situation in Alberta. We are there to help, to support growing the economy both in the short term and the long term with sound environmental, sustainable, as well as sound social policies, of which EI is an important component.

Housing  Mr. Speaker, our government is indeed re-establishing federal leadership in housing. Through budget 2016, we made an historic $2.3 billion investment for urgent housing needs, including almost $600 million to support social housing and $200 million to support seniors housing. In Toronto, this represents an additional housing investment of over $150 million.